nep-gro New Economics Papers
on Economic Growth
Issue of 2015‒03‒27
seven papers chosen by
Marc Klemp
Brown University

  1. The Deep Historical Roots of Macroeconomic Volatility By Sam Hak Kan Tang; Charles Ka Yui Leung
  2. Human Capital Formation from Occupations: The ‘Deskilling Hypothesis’ Revisited By Pleijt, Alexandra M. de; Weisdorf, Jacob L.
  3. Institutionalisation of Derivatives Trading and Economic Growth: Evidence from South Africa By Audrey Nguema Bekale, Erika Botha and Jacobus Vermeulen
  4. The measurement of production movements: lessons from the engineering industry in Italy, 1861-1913 By Stefano Fenoaltea
  5. Public spending on education and Economic Growth in Algeria: Causality Test By Yousra Mekdad; Aziz Dahmani; Monir Louadj
  6. "Financial System Development and Economic Growth in Transition Economies:New Empirical Evidence from the CEE and CIS Countries" By Laura Cojocaru; Evangelos M. Falaris; Saul Hoffman; Jeffrey B. Miller
  7. Effects of Entrepreneurship on Economic Growth in Turkey: An Empirical Analysis By Mustafa Gerçeker; Bilal Özel; Ahmet Ay

  1. By: Sam Hak Kan Tang (Business School, University of Western Australia); Charles Ka Yui Leung (Department of Economics and Finance, City University of Hong Kong)
    Abstract: We present cross-country evidence that a country’s macroeconomic volatility, measured either by the standard deviation of output growth or the occurrence of trend-growth breaks, is significantly affected by the country’s historical variables. In particular, countries with longer histories of state-level political institutions experience less macroeconomic volatility in post-war periods. In addition, we show that political instability, discretionary fiscal policy, financial underdevelopment, and a lack of foreign direct investment are the main mechanisms by which state history affects the macroeconomic volatility of modern states.
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwa:wpaper:14-31&r=gro
  2. By: Pleijt, Alexandra M. de (Utrecht University); Weisdorf, Jacob L. (Utrecht University)
    Abstract: We use HISCLASS to code the occupational titles of over 30,000 English male workers according to the skill-content of their work. We then track the evolution of the sampled working skills across three centuries of English history, from 1550 to 1850. We observe a modest rise in the share of ‘high-quality workmen’ deemed necessary by Mokyr and others to facilitate the Industrial Revolution, including machine erectors and operators. But we also find remarkable growth in the share of unskilled workers, rising from 20% in the late sixteenth century to nearly 40% in the early nineteenth century, caused mainly by falling shares of semi-skilled, blue-collar workers. Close inspection of the occupational structures within the main sectors of production suggest that deskilling occurred in agriculture and industry alike, prompted by land concentration in agriculture and workshop-to-factory changes in industry.
    Keywords: Deskilling, HISCLASS, Human Capital, Industrial Revolution, Occupations
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:222&r=gro
  3. By: Audrey Nguema Bekale, Erika Botha and Jacobus Vermeulen
    Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to foresee the likely developmental impact of the proposed institutionalisation of derivatives trading in sub-Saharan Africa(n) (SSA) countries. The case of South Africa is emphasised to illustrate how domestic derivatives trading could influence economic growth and economic growth volatility; measuring growth in real GDP. From an empirical standpoint, the influence of local derivatives activity on economic growth could not be proven, even though a long-run Granger causality is reported from economic growth to the expansion of local derivatives. These results at least sustain the realistic view that developing derivatives markets is a rather long-run process, and that efficient trading could not be achieved over the short-run. GARCH (1, 1) representation of a significant negative effect of derivatives trading on growth volatility establishes the stabilising effect of derivatives markets on the economy, but this does not constitute sufficient evidence to prove that derivatives trading can contribute to economic growth. Recommendation is that further research should look into the impact of derivatives trading on the liquidity of capital markets so as to assess the extent to which derivatives markets are able induce liquidity in their underlying capital markets, and thus provide suitable conditions for their own expansion and survival.
    Keywords: African derivatives markets, capital market development, derivatives-growth relationship, growth volatility, GMM, Granger Causality with VECM, GARCH
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:505&r=gro
  4. By: Stefano Fenoaltea
    Abstract: In the literature the (Italian) engineering industry is seen as one that transformed metal into machines; its time path is inferred from that of its consumption of metal. Newly recovered evidence indicates that far more metal was turned into (traditional) hardware than into (modern) machines. Machine production grew rapidly from a very small base: metal consumption fails to capture this change in the product mix, and understates the growth of new production at constant prices. Moreover, maintenance activity was in general as significant as new production. Maintenance was labor-intensive rather than metal-intensive, trend-dominated rather than cyclical, and relatively larger, next to new production, in 1861 than in 1913: metal consumption overstates the growth rate of the industry’s total product at constant prices, and much overstates its cyclical volatility. Technical progress was negligible in maintenance, but rapid in new production: constant-price-weighted physical measures fail to capture productivity growth, and even late-weighted series overstate the growth of the industry’s real product. These results are not tied to conditions peculiar to pre-War Italy: the new estimates presented here pave the way for emending, or at least reevaluating, the engineering-industry product series reconstructed for other times or places.
    Keywords: method, engineering, Italy
    JEL: E01 N13 N63
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:400&r=gro
  5. By: Yousra Mekdad (University of Jijel); Aziz Dahmani (University of bechar); Monir Louadj (University of jijel)
    Abstract: In this article, we seek to study the relationship between education and economic growth.For this purpose, we studied multipleentrances(dimension ) information relating education and Economic Growth on theoretical and empirical background in the first, as the second part of study to analysis and examine the effect of Public spendingon education on economic growth in Algeria over the period 1974-2012. with the use of endogenous growth model. In this model, gross domestic product(GDP) is based on the Cobb Douglas form which is the function was adoptedwith five variables: Real Gross National Product (GDP), Capital (K), Labor (L), Expenditure on Education (SEDU). Two unit root tests (Philips-Perron Test) have been employed to test the integration order of the variables.study uses Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Johansen Co-integration test and Causality Test is as analytical techniques for this purpose. The empirical results support the main hypothesis of this study that Public spending on education affects positively economic growth in Algeria. Even though that the most important effect on economic growth is for education, the other three explanatory variables affect also, positively, the economic growth; yet their effect is relatively less important than the effect of education.
    Keywords: Economic Growth; Public spending on education; Co-integration Analysis; Causality Tests.
    JEL: A10 A20 C59
    Date: 2014–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:0101002&r=gro
  6. By: Laura Cojocaru (Bankable Frontier Associates); Evangelos M. Falaris (Department of Economics, University of Delaware); Saul Hoffman (Department of Economics, University of Delaware); Jeffrey B. Miller (Department of Business, Gallaudet University)
    Abstract: We examine the role of financial development in economic growth in the former Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States during the first two decades since the beginning of transition. These countries, which had undeveloped financial systems under Communism, provide an interesting test of the relationship between financial development and growth. Our study is the broadest in terms of coverage and time period. We find that measures of financial market efficiency and competitiveness are more important than the size of the market in terms of promoting economic growth.
    Keywords: transition economies, CEE, CIS, financial sector development, economic growth
    JEL: O16 P27 P34
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:15-04&r=gro
  7. By: Mustafa Gerçeker (Selçuk University); Bilal Özel (Selcuk University); Ahmet Ay (Selcuk University)
    Abstract: The entrepreneurship seems to be an important source for economic growth. For this reason, the emphasis on entrepreneurship with the importance for economic growth is increasing day by day. This study investigates the existence of the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth by using control variables including employment and savings. For this purpose, possible relations were tried to be determined by using bound test and ARDL method for the period 1988-2012 with annually data. The results of bound test, shows that there is a long-run relationship between economic growth and entrepreneurship. Afterward long-run coefficients and equations were estimated. The results of long run coefficients shows that there is a positive and significant relationship between economic growth and entrepreneurship.
    Keywords: entrepreneurship,economic growth,ARDL method
    Date: 2014–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:0702291&r=gro

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